MISSION 002

[etrayamods]

WHO: Everyone!
WHEN: May 3rd-28th
WHERE: Within the Labyrinth
WHAT: The second Mission
NOTES\WARNINGS: Potential death, violence, injury. Please add additional warnings as needed within threads.

⏵ into the labyrinth ⏴ Aurora's announced time for the mission was correct: four days after, as she had promised, the door to the Labyrinth opens, connected to Etraya's atmospheric bubble by its entrance point. Characters are directed to come to the entrance on May 3rd, and warned that they may want to bring medical supplies, weaponry, and any important artifacts along with them. She warns that large vehicles will not fit within the limited space available, and smaller ones may be difficult to remove, thus advises those to stay behind. Aurora also offers to watch over any companion animals and keep them safe while competitors complete the Labyrinth. They are given a short amount of time outside of the entrance to speak with one another, to plan and organize themselves, before they are ushered into it in groups of two to four. Once passed the entrance, they'll find that they are unable to turn around and exit out of it: a barrier keeps them from going back into the city proper, and as soon as they are far enough forward, the walls around them shift, closing them in, moving in complex patterns meant to separate them and bring them together. Characters with extraordinary abilities may find some of them inaccessible: super strength may be downgraded to closer to ordinary strength, magic may prove to be less predictable than it should be, and regardless of how strong, fast, or clever characters are: passing over the Labyrinth walls or destroying them proves to be impossible. While one may be able to run through the pathways at superhuman speeds, the pathways compensate for it by running them in circles, refusing to allow them to make any progress on their own. ⏵ pathways collide ⏴ Junctures of the Labyrinth often present competitors with choices, some that may have consequences: a left turn down a darker path may prove to be harmless, whereas the well-lit path may be full of traps intent on slowing them down: a trip wire that activates a swinging massive axe, or arrows that shoot straight out of the wall as soon as one gets close enough. Other junctures may present characters with choices that have consequences: they can choose the shortest pathway, but at great personal risk to themselves or their partner (ie, you can go this way, but your arm isn’t going with you) or they can choose the lengthy pathway full of traps and trials they’ll have to surpass to get to the end. ⏵ balancing act ⏴ The pathway opens up into a massive space, but it's not one with an easy path out: instead, competitors will find an obstacle course that will not let them continue forward until they complete it. Many of the tasks involve things that one cannot do on their own: they must walk across multiple wooden boards balanced precariously on a tall beam, but to ensure it's balanced, there must be one person on both sides of the boards and make sure that they're walking on the board in just the right space to ensure their weight doesn't cause it to sink too far on the opposite side. If a smaller child is on one end, they may want to stand significantly further away from the beam than the larger person on the other half. ⏵ help! i'm bleeding! ⏴ A large garden area spawns off of a pathway. The peaceful chirping of birds can be heard among blooming cherry blossom trees, and it all seems utterly peaceful and calm. An area one might wish to take a breather in, enjoy the sunshine reflecting from above, and get a good nap in. Or would, except a companion bot whose abdomen is covered in ketchup appears to be struggling across the ground, crying out for help. They state they are bleeding profusely and require immediate medical attention, otherwise, they will die. The companion bot also carries a bag of medical supplies and MREs, which player characters are welcome to utilize. The pathway out of this open space will not open until after the companion bot no longer states they are dying. Whether it's because they're "dead", or because those who came across them offered "medical attention" and patched them up until they've stated they're good and no longer need assistance - well, both will technically suffice. ⏵ choice is an illusion ⏴ After walking down an additional pathway, characters will find themselves trapped within a glass box. In front of them is a pedestal with two buttons: one red, and one green, as well as a tablet above it displaying the image of another group of characters. The tablet states hindering them will help you. You may either choose to make the second group's time through the maze more difficult, or hinder your progress by pressing the green button and helping the other group forward. Characters are given two minutes to decide which path to take; the timer, on the tablet, counts down regardless of any attempt to break or hack it. Pressing the green button will drop several squishmallows into the glass box. Inside one of them is a key that unlocks the roof of the glass box. Pressing the red button, while it promises to hinder the other group, actually. . . causes a toxic yellow gas to flood the glass box. The gas will burn the lungs of those who breathe it in, but it also begins slowly melting the glass box. This gas will make breathing difficult for the next 24 hours, but will not kill those who inhale it. Healing factors will not offset the gas. ⏵ who deserves the knife? ⏴ A group of two characters will walk through one corridor and find themselves strapped to two chairs, the backs of which are leaning against each other. In front of the both of them are drills, slowly approaching their chests. They cannot go sideways but can push forward and backward. They can push backward and get themselves further away from the threat of injury - forcing the person behind them to suffer but allowing themselves to escape - or they can push into the drill and free the person they're with. Alternatively, they can choose not to push either way, potentially sacrificing them both. Three options, but they are left with minimal time to decide as the drill continues to press closer. If they choose to go out together, they'll find that as the drills press against their chest - they simply stop. Minimal blood will be spilled, and they will have all the time they need to figure out how to squirm out of their bindings. ⏵ the Siren waits for thee ⏴ A seemingly harmless pathway turns into much more trouble than it's worth. A few steps through a corridor, and suddenly competitors will find the floor falling out from under them, revealing a body of water and - no solid ground on either side of it. There are the walls, but they lack any good climbing holds. Within the water are numerous Sirens - beautiful androgynous creatures that sing soft songs meant to entice others into following them deep into the water. While they may look beautiful, their mouths are full of razor-sharp teeth, and their intentions certainly aren't innocent. However, the Sirens can only touch competitors once they have initiated touch first. They will do their best to encourage this: holding out their hands, crying out for help, pretending to drown, or trying to coax them into coming in close enough for a kiss. As long as they remain on the path, they're harmless. But the moment they reach out for the Sirens... getting away from them will not be easy. Their tails are powerful, built for moving swiftly throughout the water and dragging others along with them. They bite hard and will dig their teeth deep into flesh to discourage struggling. If one gets captured by them? They're lunch. Or worse yet: if they get bitten but manage to escape, they may find themselves becoming a bit.. scaley around the neck, eyes shifting color to a too-soft green, and an almost impossible-to-resist urge to take a bite out of their friends. This effect will continue until May 28th regardless of when the character reaches the end of the Labyrinth. After May 28th, they will find that their scales slowly begin to shed, their eyes begin to turn back to their normal shade, and any other new features slowly turn back to how they were before they were infected. ⏵ don't forget your ball of twine ⏴ The Labyrinth is large, and there are many challenges around each corner. There may be space for breaks in between monsters, challenges, riddles, places to sit and recuperate between battles and mind games. It's not all chaos and challenges meant to test one's strength of will. ⏵ NOTES ⏴ May's mission is completing a massive Labyrinth. All characters must enter the Labyrinth; whether or not they participate once they're inside is up to them, but no one will be permitted to stay behind in the city. The duo who completes the Labyrinth first will be allowed to assist in choosing the next mission. Sign-ups for this are here. We will contact the chosen characters on May 13th. This mission will cover the time between May 3rd and May 28th. After May 28th, any characters who have not yet exited the Labyrinth will be gathered by the companion bots and brought back into the city. The companion bots will be aiming for nonviolent intervention. If more is needed, please let us know here. The first to exit will be returning to the city on May 15th. There will be powercapping during this mission, but the extent of which is fully up to players. We want the Labyrinth to be challenging but don't want to hinder gameplay too much. If you have any questions relating to this or want assistance coming up with ways to powercap your character, please feel free to ask us here. We will be largely leaving this up to player discretion. Food is scarce within the Labyrinth, but not impossible to find. There are chests (or maybe they're mimics?) strewn throughout with various useful items. One might have a sword, another might have a fresh chicken nugget Happy Meal from McDonalds. Or an entire birthday cake, candles included. Large vehicles will not fit in the Labyrinth and must be left behind in the city. Numerous challenges are throughout the Labyrinth. You are welcome to make your own, but we will also provide several you may utilize! Please feel free to throw down wildcards, or your own challenges into your prompts! The limitation is that characters must remain themselves throughout the challenges. There are no mirror replicas, nothing within the Labyrinth will affect their personalities or core values. It’s meant to challenge, not change them. Deaths that occur within the Labyrinth will last 24 hours. Please report these on our Death Tracker. All new locations will appear after player characters have returned to the city. Feel free to note the differences from the May 3rd map, versus what characters will be returning to on May 15th.

Comments

[mostdangerousbird]

I live for the hatred. I lead a team of dedicated but opinionated and sometimes lazy teenaged superheroes, who have a great time towing me around because I can't fly. You can't say anything to me that they haven't.

[ Not embarrassing at all, from the matter-of-fact treatment he's getting. He's been hauled around by flyers by his belt often enough to sidestep making a big stink about a guy needing a hand.

He grabs Wiccan's hand and forearm with his and pulls, carefully and evenly - this is not the time to yank someone's wrist or shoulder, and he has to mind where his own weight is.

They are, as he is trying to ignore, over lava. As far as life expectancy goes, the only reason it's worse than jumping between skyscrapers is less time to recover the fall. ]

Kind of twin?

[ A grin, despite the effort and situational stress. If Billy can talk, he can laugh. Tim has him; he won't fall from giggles. ]

I'm sorry - how is he your kind of twin? It's a clone thing, isn't it? Parallel universe duplicate? Your parents are two sets of identical twins so you're double first cousins?

[wiccant]

I can fly you around later when we're not trapped in a labyrinth that messes with magic.

( red robin has a good grip on him, and billy takes advantage of that to pull himself the rest of the way up onto the monkey bars. once he is up and on top of them, balancing himself out is easy: he puts one leg over one side, and the other over the other. all he'll need to do is drag himself forward to get to the end of them, at which point they can figure the rest out from there. now that he's not jumping onto something over the lava pit, he seems significantly less worried about potentially frying himself.

so at least there's that. )

It's complicated? So, our mom is the Scarlet Witch, right? She's another chaos magic user, and chaos magic is--its creation. Reality-warping magic. And she'd been in a relationship with an android, our dad, known as Vision. Obviously, an android and a human can't really have children in the normal way, so she'd wished us into existence. Long story short, ( don't mind him, just scooting himself a little so he's more centered on the bars. ) we'd kind of died, but instead of our souls being erased entirely, we were reincarnated. His soul went to one family, mine went to another. So we're not legally, technically twins, but outside of our hair and eye colors, we're pretty identical. We share the same mom from before we'd died and were reincarnated, he'd gained mutant abilities similar to our uncle, whereas mine mimic our mother's.

[mostdangerousbird]

I can show you how to use a grappling hook when lava's not pouring down the walls. I've had enough wedgies and hands digging into my armpits. You can keep your flying, but you have my condolences for having a life story crazier than mine.

[ The family names are interesting, bios lacking, but it's too easy to overshare when asking someone about their family. Sympathize about brothers, relate his experiences with sentient androids. He can't. But dang, he wants too.

Billy's more at ease on the bars, and Tim relaxes at seeing that. As much as people might think the bars were the riskiest part of this, now that they're on top of them, they can spare the time to catch their breath and brace themselves for the rest of the trip.

Red Robin moves to the midway point of the monkey bars in a crouch -

(He could walk them, but he'd rather not make a mockery of the room where the AI might see.) (It wouldn't be a mockery, anyway, as the floor is literally lava.)

And considers the options. He points at the chest, tantalizing and all alone on its little island. ]

What are your thoughts on sidequests?

[ Before there's any time for a response, another voice echoes from above the platform in the opposite direction. And not just any voice. His, Tim's, voice.

I can't eat cake, it'll ruin my figure.

Later, he will kill Damian. Now, he will look towards the sound in case Billy heard it too. (Please be a hard-of-hearing wizard so he does not have to acknowledge it.) ]

[wiccant]

If it helps, I don't have to carry you when flying with you. Usually, when I take a group of friends, I just make a platform for them to stand on. Way easier than trying to figure out how to hold onto all of them at once.

( red robin keeps moving forward, and billy follows after him. he's balanced enough now that he's on top of the monkey bars that he's not too worried about falling. depending on his hands to swing him across would have been something else entirely. this is easier, significantly less stressful, and he's less nervous now that he's not wholly at risk of falling into the lava and dying.

the chest, on the other hand, is far enough away that billy doesn't want to head over that way - especially given he'd have to get back up here after. he raises a hand and settles back on his legs, and small little blue disks form between where they're at and where the chest awaits.

it's amazing how things work but not how he really wants them to, isn't it. )

Think it'll open with just one of us, or does it need both?

( and with an upturn of his mouth, )

If we're lucky, maybe it'll be cake.

( who cares about maintaining one's figure. )

[mostdangerousbird]

Huh.

[ The platforms aren't large, but they're serviceable stepping stones. Red Robin taps at one with his bo, and it stops the weapon and doesn't bobble.

He doesn't think about it long - if he does, even Tim would talk himself out of what he's about to do. Billy has trusted him to catch him, to help him up. Time to return the favor. ]

Let's find out.

[ He jumps for the first platform, scampering across them like they're floating platforms in a pool. ]

[wiccant]

( billy's done this enough times to feel relatively confident in his ability to not let the stepping stones disappear while red robin is using them. unless something blocks out his magic again, in which case--he tried. while he's leaping across to the chest, billy slides over to the edge of the monkey bars and swings his legs over so he's facing the chest. )

Right. I'll stay here, just in case.

( he could probably, while his magic is still working, fly on down there. but he doesn't want to chance it not working, and them not having someone up top to pull the other back over, if it becomes an issue. )